Country doctor delivers care the old-fashioned way

Dr. Howard Clark makes his rounds during a long day's work

MORTON, Mississippi (CNN) -- In today's fast-paced health care arena, Dr. Howard Clark is a throwback to an earlier age -- a true country doctor who still makes house calls.

Oh, the pace is still fast. The 73-year-old Clark typically gets a mere four hours of sleep a night, what with hospital rounds, nursing home visits, clinic patients and emergency room duty all vying for attention.

"He's always been able to outwork me," said decades-younger nurse practitioner Michelle Jett. "When I first started working for him, it'd be a 12-hour day and I'd be so exhausted -- and he would be still going."

Clark recently was honored as "Country Doctor of the Year" by Irving, Texas-based temporary physician staffing firm Staff Care Inc. But for him, it's all in a day's work -- a day that started 44 years ago on a troop carrier in the South Pacific.

"The word went out ... they needed more medics, and for some reason, that just sounded good to me," he remembered.

After World War II ended, Clark took his newly minted medical degree from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, to the central Mississippi town he's called home ever since.

"Morton about that time was 2,000 people. That's my kind of people," he said. "You want to live in a town so you can know the people and they can know you."

In the years since, Morton's population has ballooned to nearly 4,000, but Clark still knows his people. And they know -- and appreciate -- him.

Dr. Howard Clark was recently named Country Doctor of the Year by the firm Staff Care, Inc.

The field house at Morton High School is named after Clark, the football team's doctor. He hasn't missed a game since 1956.

"He's also on the school board and he did some things for new lighting of the field," noted football coach Durwood Anderson, adding that Clark also was instrumental in supplying a "new sound system and just everything."

In addition, the doctor provides money for a scholarship fund.

A heart attack hardly slowed him down. Not long after Clark underwent an artery-expanding balloon angioplasty, he was back at the field.

"It comes from his heart," said a nursing home patient who, thanks to Clark's intervention is now able to stay in the same room with his wife. "It doesn't come from what he knows. It comes from his heart."

CNN Medical Correspondent Rhonda Rowland reports:

	VIDEO
Rhonda Rowland looks at why Dr. Howard Clark is so valued by his community Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

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